


from day one

by weasleytook



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Romance, Sappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3178817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing ends like Emily expects it too, and as usual Nolan is there to help her pick up the pieces and move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from day one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galfridian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galfridian/gifts).



> Tumblr prompt fic for Jess that got WAY out of hand. Seriously. It was supposed to be like 800 words, lol, oops.
> 
> Her prompt was: "even when she has nothing, she has him"

In the end, she doesn’t get anything she wants. Not really. 

Emily had wanted Victoria to suffer and she did, through the loss of her fortune, of Conrad, of Daniel and of David’s love. But she had never wanted to kill her. Killing her would have been too easy.

Emily doesn’t choose Victoria’s fate, David chooses it for her. He kills her, and even though it is clear to many that it’s to save Emily’s life, David returns to prison.

She loses her father, again. Months before this, Jack had already taken Carl and left for somewhere safer. Charlotte moves to Europe and refuses to acknowledge her existence. She even loses most of her fortune, thanks to one last hit from Victoria in conjunction with a vengeful Margaux.

Emily is left with nothing.

Except Nolan.

 

*

 

Emily packs very little, some clothes, a few items that mean something to her and that’s it. When she heads downstairs for one last cup of morning coffee in Grayson Manor, she finds Nolan in her kitchen.

“What’s all this?”

Nolan waves a hand over the spread he’s brought over and says,“Croissants, fresh fruit, mimosas. I figure if you’re leaving the high life of Grayson Manor forever, then you might as well go out in style.”

She smiles, just a little, and takes a seat across from the counter from him. It’s the first time she’s smiled in weeks and it feels right that it’s because of Nolan. “Thank you, Nolan.”

“So what’s next?”

“I – I don’t know. And it feels so strange to say that because I’ve always had a plan, and a back-up plan, and ten more back-up plans if the first two fail. But I don’t know. I’ve already booked a hotel room in town for a few nights and I’ll figure it out from there.”

He pours her a mimosa and slides it across the counter. “Don’t be an idiot, you’re staying with me.”

She doesn’t argue, partly because she doesn’t have the energy to try and partly because she just doesn’t want to be alone. Independence has always come easy to her, but right now she needs to be around the only person on earth she can trust.

 

*

 

She wakes up at one a.m., then twenty-seven minutes after that, then another thirty-one minutes after that, and finally an hour after that. Too many questions weighing heavily on her mind for her to sleep, too much _what if_ and _what now_.

Emily ends up on the couch in Nolan’s living room, a book from his shelves in her lap and no desire to read it. She’s there for at least thirty minutes when suddenly Nolan appears and puts a mug full of tea in her hands.

“How did you know? How – how do you always know?”

Nolan shrugs one shoulder and sits beside her. “I have a sixth sense. Like ESP, Emily Sensory Perception.”

She takes a sip and gives him the hint of a smile. “Well, I appreciate it.”

“Insomnia?”

“More like a complete lack of knowing what I’m supposed to do.”

“You’re going to do whatever the hell you want, whatever makes you happy. You’re the most capable person I know. And yeah, everything’s shit right now, but you’ve been through worse.”

“Have I?”

He gives her a doubtful glance that ends with a smirk. “Yeah, I think you have. Just take some time to process and then –“

“Then what?”

“What would you be doing if you never had this mission? If you were leading a normal life, what kind of life would that be?”

She shakes her head and frowns. “I don’t know. I’ve been doing this so long, I don’t even remember what it was like to have goals other than this. What about you? If you had never met my dad, where would you be? Wouldn’t your life be better?”

“Ems, if I had never met David – never met you – my life would be so much worse. I’d probably be dead or in jail.”

“Nolan, don’t say that.”

“I was a comptuer nerd who got kicked out of my parents’ house because I liked to sleep with guys and girls. I had no family, no friends, no hope for anything and your dad saved me. And then you came along and –“

Emily interrupts, “Made everything worse.”

“Better.”

He puts a hand on her knee and it feels like the most intimate moment they’ve ever had. It’s not friendly, but it’s not romantic, it’s somewhere in-between, and she surprises herself but not flinching or brushing it off.

Emily puts her hand on top of his and the words spill out of her before she even has time to think it over, “Go with me.”

“What? Where?”

“I don’t know where yet, but come with me. Unless you don’t want to give up this insane Hamptons lifestyle.”

“Ems.”

“I know you have the beach club and NolCorp so I won’t be hurt if you say no but –“

“Ems. Stop.”

She closes her mouth and furrows her brow, waiting for him to continue.

He smiles and answers, “All you ever had to do was ask. All those times you made a plan to leave, with Aiden or with your father. None of them ever included me and it always –“

She thinks he’s about to say that it broke his heart, or maybe she’s just imagining it from the pained look on his face, but whatever it is, he falls short and shrugs it off. 

“I’m sorry. I should have –“ It’s her turn to struggle with finishing a sentence. Should have known better, should have seen that Nolan would follow her anywhere, should have known that she would need him too, should have understood that she’d have to be the one to ask him to go – if she thought on it any more, she might drown in should haves. 

His hand moves from being underneath hers to holding her hand with one easy move and he smiles. “So where do we go?”

“I have no idea. I guess for the first time in my life I’m doing what they call ‘living in the moment’.”

“How does that feel?”

“Terrible.” She laughs, musical and throaty, and it’s a laugh that she hasn’t heard come from her mouth since she was a child.

Nolan laughs with her, then squeezes her hand as he settles into the couch to get more comfortable. “Well, the world is yours – ours. We could change our names to Jane and Joe, move out west and start over, whatever you want to do.”

She’s not so sure about the names, but the rest of it sounds perfect.

 

*

 

They don’t become Jane and Joe, they become Natalie and Jake.

They do go West, to a cozy little town on the California coast, north of Los Angeles. 

She changes her hair from blonde to brown, and Nolan lets his go darker. They buy a modest house just up the hill from the beach, because the ocean is too much in Emily’s bloodstream to ever let that go. They have three bedrooms, one for him, one for her, and one for Nolan’s computers. It is bare bones when they get it, but that means every touch they add to it is personal.

Nolan sells off NolCorp, but he never loses his desire to create. Now he just sells his creations and gives the profits to charities that mean something to the both of them. He also buys a small computer shop in town and works there a few days a week repairing computers and teaching kids how to code.

Emily has never really worked an actual job in her life. Even when she did things like waitressing, it was for the sole purpose of spying on the Graysons and the other people involved in her father’s imprisonment. Nolan tells her to put her skills to use, so she opens up a martial arts studio next to his computer shop. She teaches more serious martial arts classes, but also basic self defense classes and it’s easily the most fulfilling thing she’s ever done in her life.

It’s all so _normal_. She always thought normal would be too boring, but it’s never boring. There was so much living she was missing out on because her whole life was taken over by vengeance and hatred. It’s like she’s finally discovering who she really is. It’s comfortable and peaceful and Nolan always finds ways to make it fun.

They don’t date. Not anyone in town and definitely not each other. It’s not for lack of offers, but Emily figures they’ve both had too many relationship failures that neither of them are ready. At least that’s what she _thinks_ is going on.

A year into their new lives and Emily realizes that maybe Nolan is in love with her. 

Almost two years into their new lives and she realizes that maybe she’s in love with him too.

 

*

 

One of the moms of her students asks her about Nolan’s romantic status. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and she knows Nolan gets asked about her too. But it’s the first time it makes her heart stop. Surely, after two years of being single, he must be ready to date and Emily actually thinks this woman might be a good match for him.

She speaks before she thinks, something she almost never does, and tells the woman that he’s taken, but she’s sure he’ll be flattered.

It’s a lie. Of course it’s a lie. But the thought of this happy little life they’ve created breaking up is suddenly terrifying to her.

Emily comes home right as Nolan is about to start cooking dinner. He’s so domestic, always has been, even back in the Hamptons days. She suddenly gets this vision of him marrying the woman from her studio or maybe that cute guy who is always checking him out at the coffee house, and making dinner for them and not her. She knows she’s being nuts, already marrying him off when he hasn’t even said yes to a date, but the thought of it panics her.

He’s chopping vegetables at the kitchen counter when she comes in, but he stops to greet her with a smile. “They had a really great looking salmon at the market, so I thought –“

“Do you mind putting the knife down for a second?”

He pauses and puts the knife on the cutting board, then quickly wipes his hands on a towel. “Everything okay?”

She shakes her head, hesitates for just a moment, then steps forward and plants her lips on his. There’s a brief moment of shock, but he starts kissing her back immediately. It feels _good_ , but more importantly, it feels _right_. It’s brief, because before it goes any further, she has to know it’s not just a whim.

In true Nolan fashion, he jokes, “I knew you liked salmon, but wow…”

“Nolan, I’m not crazy, am I? You – and I –“

“I have loved you for longer than you can imagine.”

She smiles and puts her hands on his chest with a sigh. “How long?”

“Probably since the day I first met you. Amanda Clarke, eighteen years old, angry at the world, but something special.”

“That long?”

He puts his hands on her waist and pulls her closer to him. “I loved you when you were Amanda, when you were Emily, and I love Natalie even more.”

“I should have known. I’m sorry that I didn’t know.”

She kisses him again, much longer than the last time, and this time their bodies are pressed close together and his hands end up in her hair. She does a quick calculation in her head and realizes it’s been sixteen years since they met, sixteen years of bad decision making when she could have had this all along. He saw her, the real her, even then, which definitely makes him the smart one because it took her way too long to figure it out.

Emily breaks off again and says softly, “Sixteen years.”

“I always had hope.”

“How?”

“Well, you didn’t make our cover story for living together that we were siblings. That helped.” 

He grins and she laughs, while also making a silent promise to herself to make up for all those years they could have been together. Nolan kisses her first this time, and she knows it’s what was always supposed to happen. In this ending, she gets everything she wants.


End file.
